Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Evap/Swamp Cooler Performance?

I was supposed to have ripped-out the evaporative or swamp coolers in my fixer-upper by now and replaced them with something else; (I still am not positive about with what, but that's another story and perhaps I'll benefit from the delay); But, you know what they say about "best-laid plans" and it got hot in the desert, so this eastern guy had to learn about the alien concept of adding humidity and how to make the things work.

I got the one in the main part of the house going and it performs wonderfully and though I will probably end-up with some management questions before all is said and done, right now I have a couple of more immediate questions;<OL><LI>The cooler that is now functioning is a large, probably whole house antique which is framed into where a window, once was located. I've been told locally that I should open a window at the far end of the house in order to pull the flow through; First of all, does anybody have any suggestions as to how far one should open a steel casement window to get the most efficient benefit? And on a related note; The master bedroom is actually around the corner and behind the current unit; I can bounce the air off of a closed door and suck it around the corner with a fan, but what might be the consensus about opening a window in this room, also?

<LI>The other unit is almost as large, but slightly newer and it is mounted in the roof over what was an attached apartment that I will be bringing into the house, late in year two. I do not need to cool the apartment, but I have no other roof suitable for it's installation and because the house is essentially L-shaped, the other unit is around a big corner in what could be considered another wing, especially if the house was larger; Appearance means nothing, when it comes to the apartment; So what might be the feeling about ducting the apartment cooler down, elbowing it and installing a run of about six feet to get it into the house? I will need to lose a couple to three feet in elevation, somewhere between the cooler and the house; If my plan is feasible; Should I lose the elevation in the area of the elbow, or would it be more advisable to install a more gentle slope, or would two elbows be better?</OL>I apologize for not knowing the size or ratings of the units, neither have faceplates and I know there is no visible markings on the house unit, because I have been messing with it for a couple of days. I do know that the antique house unit has what appears to be a new pump, float, belt and motor, but the very large turbine is obviously original. Also, the pads on the house unit were 28x34 for the front and 22x34 on the sides. The apartment unit appears to be square and most likely uses the 22" or possibly 24" pads, but I haven't measured, nor have I pulled the covers to see when it was rebuilt, but knowing the history of the home, I suspect it is in fine working order except that it hasn't been started in probably four years.

Any input would be appreciated;
Thanks in Advance;
R

PS) The apartment cooler is hardwired and the house's is not, if that is of any value to the above query. Also, it has probably rained less than a tenth of an inch in the past 24 hours, so it has been slightly cooler and more humid; But, the tempertaure has ranged over this short timeframe between 69 and 90 and the humidity averages-out to 35%, though throughout the bulk of the daylight, we were stuck at 21% and both showers occurred at night.

Also, the morning sun has revealed, it appears from the ground that the apartment pads may be of the 24" width.

How and why they work would take to long. Lets go like this. Its you have this blower blowing into the home. Now it can only blow so much in ,so if you dont let any out it cant blow anymore in. So if the blower is on and I open a window in any room this air will go there to get out. Now if I open the windows a little in all of the rooms they will all get some of this air that Im blowing in to the home.So with the filters clean on the unit and the water running over them the aspiration rate over your skin is what makes you feel cool.Thats like up north and southeast. I have put a lot of set ups like that in , but only in large restaurants kitchens and laundrys. There we use a large swamp cooler to blow the air in and put a large vent fan at the other end to take it out. Its the aspiration rate over you that make you feel cool in a hot place like them.
So up here we use the A/C to take out the humidity to feel good and down there you put it in with the swamp cool to feel good.
This might help you get the air where you want it. Its more in where you let it out.
;) ED

Ed; Thanks for the quick response and I apologize for the lack of speed in acknowledging; It's been kind of a strange and hectic few days; I hope you understand... So, I should think in the terms of volume because it isn't a recirculating system and this especially makes sense, considering the rush of air whenever you open a door.

As for piping the apartment into the house to achieve some kind of balance; Since appearance doesn't really matter, I'm now under the impression that I may be able to simply run flex and perhaps, wire a bathroom fan at the house end to better extricate the cool, moist air.

Also after factoring-in your input, I realize that it is still spring and folks tell me that the temp will eventually live above 100&deg;, but right this minute, the one in the house actually makes it seem cold because there isn't a thermostat connected to the unit; So, all I have been able to do is run it until it becomes too cold and then, turn it off until it gets too warm, repeat. So, I actually have a little more time before I need to worry too much about supplementing anyway, because otherwise our bodies may get too confused by the extremes.

Thanks Again;
You've been a lot of help;
R

You could wire the unit in with a humidistat and see how that works for you;) ED

Thanks again, Ed; There seems to be a few postings (33) within this forum that include the term; I'll do some reading on the subject and see if I can figure-out how to wire one into something that looks like a big window unit and I may come back at you with some questions after I learn more. But based on this second suggestion, I will email a couple of local labrats this afternoon and see if I can "borrow" a device that I might use to find a relationship between relative humidty and the "feels-like" temperature for a cost/benefit analysis.

Thanks & Double Thanks;
R

I'm reviving this slightly older thread because my next question falls under the same general heading...

Am I mistaken in my belief that I am not hurting anything by occasionally running the fan/rotor and not pushing the button to invoke the pump? I realize that I am not getting the evaporative advantage and I wouldn't be saving that much electricity because the pump is low-power; But when it's cooler at night and because I can only open a limited number of windows (antique steel casement and makeshift screens); The added night air is beneficial, but I really wouldn't want to unknowingly cause harm...

Thanks in Advance;
R

A fan is a fan and a blower is a blower. So if you want let them run all the time. The only thing that comes to mind here is when you do turn off the water pump it wont hurt anything .But you might get just some road dust are lint in the home because the filter in the unit would be dry thats all.If you want to let the blower run all the time,you could like wire the pump on a humidistat and set it to come on and off as needed;) ;) ED

Once again; Thanks Ed...

The house unit is actually pretty well protected from the road, so I don't think dust would be much of an issue except possibly during the occasional sandstorm. I didn't think it would hurt anything and when the nightime temp is below 80&deg;, the fan is really all that we need; But, it only cost a couple of minutes of your time and mine to make sure, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask; Thanks!

As an update on the humidistat option; Nobody in town sells one and though my tests with a psychometer showed only a small reduction in real-temp, but a doubling or more of humidity between the indoor and outdoor numbers; The only suggestion anyone locally could offer was a regular thermostat without special ordering; So, I figured I'd wait until I next go into the city and see what they have in the blue or orange box. Though, the way things are going, it won't be long until I'll probably need the thing 24/7, anyway. So, the question could become moot before I get a day to go into town; But, your alternative of wiring the humidistat to the pump and not the entire unit sounds like it may be worth spending an extra half hour, mapping the daily extremes to see how much additional usage, I may get from the purchase; Good idea!

Thanks Again;
R

try and look up at www.grainger they have evaporative cooling controls. Or you could take a humidistat control and put a double throw relay with it to the pump. That would turn the pump on when you need it;) We will get the sucker running yet Yes Id say turn off the water at night ED;)

As far as I know, Grainger is wholesale only. Larger home centers should carry humidistats.

Thanks Ed and I'm pretty sure you are right, Andrew; My local True Value told me when I first bought the house, they'll order anything from Grainger that I want and in fact, if I go in with a really strange request, they just look at Grainger; So, I am covered and you may want to inquire at your own locally-owned hardware store, if you are in hopes of a similar arrangement.

My problem is that I am cheap as dirt, so I run a cost/benefit analysis on every purchase;

Peace;
R